Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Marshall On Carson

The issue is more that, seemingly without fail, every misperception or failed memory Carson invariably casts in the most self-glorifying and self-righteous light imaginable. As I suggested above, the most charitable reading of the Carson spectacle is that Carson is a sort of self-awareness Mr Magoo consistently or at least repeatedly misunderstanding or misremembering incidents in his own life and piecing them together or reconstructing them a narrative of his own awesome. Much like his predilection for confidently pronouncing on topics he knows absolutely nothing about, this is less a matter of failed memory (if we're to interpret this generously) than arrogance.

Here is the crux of the issue. Carson has absolutely zero experience running anything larger than a hospital department. He has zero experience in elective office. His candidacy is ENTIRELY about his personal narrative and the fact that he is the African American conservative who embraces both the GOP narrative of self-improvement in the face of impossible odds and can attack Obama without getting labeled racist - and in fact inoculates Republicans from the charges of racism that have swirled around them since Obama was elected.

I've never felt like Carson was a serious presidential candidate, so much as a branding tour. How much longer will he suffer the indignity of having his bullshit called out? How long before the sorrowful press conference where he leverages his victimhood into a three book deal with Regnery Press?